So.... there i was Friday morning enjoying the beautiful expanse that is BRC and much to my surprise i saw a familiar brand logo being flown through the sky. Now the industry im employed in sells said advertisers so i recognized their logo from afar and right away. But im not going to mention their name because i would rather not promote their product...... its not really that special. (Its just amino acids and complex carbohydrates and its not one of a kind)
I was not amused.
I had traveled many miles to this festival for many reasons and one of them is to escape the constant influx of advertising....... even the ones that i experience from this industry day to day at my job.
I was a little offended that they decided to do this and i was definitely wondering if this was going to be a common occurrence now....... whats next a familiar blimp...... some shoes that i must have being flown in front of my eyes.
and to make things even more interesting as i was discussing the audacity of these marketing execs a camp full of kids behind me poured out of there den and exclaimed "dude those are the nutrients we use!" and gave each other a group hug. Overjoyed at the triumph that they....... yes they had been advertised to.
Just for the record i have been employed at a store that sells all of these nutrients for nearly eight years now. This culture they are advertising to is not a counter culture. It is big business. Multimillion dollar business. They just want your money like every other corporation.
don't believe the hype. protect your right to mental space.

i see people going out of their way to mangle corporate logos at burning man, so the outright ad doesn't quite seem in keeping with the spirit of burning man (but then i really couldn't explain what the spirit actually is...if it hasn't already been completely sucked out).

i would wager a lot a people don't give a fuck tho because it was weed growing supplies being advertised after all, and i'm sure a majority still fancy themselves cutting edge outlaws or something cuz they managed to sprout a half assed crop and got paid for it.

This whole stunt is bullshit!!! This was a planned advertising stunt by Advanced Nutrients, a hydroponics company that sells a fertilizer for cannabis, stating: "Want Sugary Buds?" And as you left BRC and drove into Gerlach they had a fucking tent selling the shit! What next.... Coca Cola, Pepsi, who knows. That fucking helicopter should have been either grounded by air traffic control at the BRC airport or shot out of the sky!

I encourage everyone to boycott this company and their products for their selfish attempt to corrupt our festival to promote their own company. Please join me in this effort.

Well so be it then on free air space. But here's an idea to make them pay for their corrupt act... call their toll free number a few times a day from a phone that you don't mind tying up for an hour or so. Just put the receiver down after you dial and let the minutes pile up. This might be good if you work in an office and have an extra line that you can use. The call is free for you, but they will have to pay their long distance carrier for every incoming call for the duration of that call. And we can also tie up their toll free line if we get enough callers, which will prevent their customers from getting through.

Sounds like someone has too much free time on their hands.
And if a tent manufacturer claims that their gear survives Burning Man, or if a TV show has a brief reference, or if Obama gives a shout out, go ahead and waste your time trying to fight it, be my guest.

You're missing the point Ugly. It's about the fact that this company brought a banner and flew it over the Playa for an extended period of time. And then brough their shit to Gerlach. Do you want to see the Goodyear and Metlife blimps and a Coca Cola or Pepsi hot air balloon over the Playa next year? Or even worse yet, have Budweiser fly over several times in an airplane dropping thousands of $1.00 off coupons for a 6 pack of beer - raining moop all over us. This stunt has opened the door for other large companies, with much larger advertising budgets than Advanced has, to follow their lead.

It's not about having too much time on our hands. It's about speaking out against the corporate world attempting to infiltrate our city.

This stunt has opened the door for other large companies, with much larger advertising budgets than Advanced has, to follow their lead.

Not really. This, like most everything else isn't the first time. I think it was 2001 when the sky writer plane spelled sex.com in the sky.I think they were trying to sell the URL, or just get brand recognition. Anyway, it's 8 years later and the event isn't selling timeshares, nor is it sponsored by MTV or Disney. The slippery slope isn't that slick.

This stunt has opened the door for other large companies, with much larger advertising budgets than Advanced has, to follow their lead.

Not really. This, like most everything else isn't the first time. I think it was 2001 when the sky writer plane spelled sex.com in the sky.I think they were trying to sell the URL, or just get brand recognition. Anyway, it's 8 years later and the event isn't selling timeshares, nor is it sponsored by MTV or Disney. The slippery slope isn't that slick.

Burners aren't that much of a market, apparently, except for pot-growing equipment.

I saw it too..but just barely...my sunglasses and/or goggles were too dusty to read anything else besides the sugary bit. me and my friends were also "there's something we'll never buy because of this ad..whatever it is."

man, i like to think that every year a shitton of money goes out to the playa and pretty much dies there as art, bacon, and drugs. (romantic ain't it?) but i'm actually surprised it's not a lot worse with the advertising and all. and i'm willing to bet it's because many many people before me did not look the other way and stomped all over those fugly heads when they appeared. if i must endure some twat with a megaphone handing me a ration of shit because i'm dressed to the 9s, then damnit i'm fit to throw a tomato at whatever commercial crap i stumble across at burning man. want me to buy ur nutrients? do me a softshoe jag off...

[b]OH, and just to add some more details, said nutrient company pulled the same shit at the san francisco hydro expo when they were'nt allowed into the event.[/b]

Kimo wrote:You're missing the point Ugly. It's about the fact that this company brought a banner and flew it over the Playa for an extended period of time. And then brough their shit to Gerlach. Do you want to see the Goodyear and Metlife blimps and a Coca Cola or Pepsi hot air balloon over the Playa next year? Or even worse yet, have Budweiser fly over several times in an airplane dropping thousands of $1.00 off coupons for a 6 pack of beer - raining moop all over us. This stunt has opened the door for other large companies, with much larger advertising budgets than Advanced has, to follow their lead.

It's not about having too much time on our hands. It's about speaking out against the corporate world attempting to infiltrate our city.

No, I don't really want those blimps or planes or sales booths in Gerlach. But I would prefer them to giving somebody the power to stop them. The phrase "it's a free country" seems only to be used to say "I am free to do what I want."

Yep. that sign was a marker for Gigsville. Funny that not too many people seemed to care about that bit of advertising. Probably because it was unlikely to be paid for by the company. Either way, it is a brand, and flying it up there like that is tantamount to advertising, paid or not. However, so is every PBR held in someone's hand.

Hell, thunderdome and a lot of other stuff is lifted out of other media. If someone wants to share their love of PBR (and hopefully some actual PBR) with BRC should we stop them? If no one is paying them to do it then it's not commerce.

BM is no longer underground. It is going to be targeted and exploited in many ways. Most of those folks will not be advertising at BM but instead using the BM experience in other areas.

Press releases went out before the city opened from the nutrient folks, an outfit supplying energy drinks to center camp and the cell phone folks. They don't care what we think, they are interested in the other 304,009,724 americans

Strickland Propane is proud to be supplying liquified natural gas explosive power to the art installations of the mega festival Burning Man!!!

shezebelle wrote:If anyone happened to take a photo of the helicopter and ad banner, or you see one somewhere, I would *love* to have it.

There may be actions we can take, but a good photo would help!

)'(

My campmate got a pic - I'll see if I can get ahold of it. I think this is utter bullshit as well and hope there IS something that can be done. We all love our Carharts out there too but I would be pissed to see them fly a banner over head.

sputnik wrote:Yep. that sign was a marker for Gigsville. Funny that not too many people seemed to care about that bit of advertising. Probably because it was unlikely to be paid for by the company. Either way, it is a brand, and flying it up there like that is tantamount to advertising, paid or not. However, so is every PBR held in someone's hand.

Oh, people who had it staring down at them all week cared, believe me. CruiseAmerica, UHaul and Ryder don't pay people to advertise for them, yet many folks go to a lot of effort to mask or alter the images so as not to bring that shit into our fair city. I don't care if DPW or Gigsville loves the beer, flagrantly flying that PBR sign set a bad example by people who should know better.